At the End of the Fray (最後の激闘！優勝への道！！ The Last Fierce Fight! The Road to the Championship!!) is the 40th episode of Pokémon: Advanced Battle.

Episode Plot

After the explosion, Glalie and Sceptile are defeated, much to Ash's and Tyson's shock. Team Rocket spots the stand where they will work - it is all dusty and grey. Their boss tells them they could remodel it and repaint it and he goes away. Jessie is angry and smashes the stand, wishing to capture Pikachu instead. James asks where Meowth is. Torkoal uses Flamethrower, though Shiftry dodges. Team Rocket's Meowth sees the battle, waiting for Tyson's Meowth. Shiftry attacks with Mega Kick, hurting Torkoal. Shiftry then uses Shadow Ball, pushing Torkoal. Torkoal attacks with Flamethrower, so Shiftry dodges. Torkoal jumps and hits Shiftry by the attack, defeating it. Tyson sends Hariyama and Ash decides to keep Torkoal. Torkoal starts with Flamethrower, though Hariyama uses Arm Thrust to negate the attack. Brock tells May, Max and Morrison Hariyama has a lot of fat that keeps it from harm of Fire and Ice type attacks. Hariyama uses Brick Break, defeating Torkoal in an instant.

Ash sends Corphish as his next Pokémon. Corphish uses BubbleBeam, though Hariyama evades and uses Brick Break once more, but hits the ground, as Corphish evades. Corphish then uses Crabhammer and Hariyama Focus Punch and an explosion is made, defeating Corphish and pushing Hariyama. A pause is made, so Morrison yells at Ash that he cannot lose, to which Ash agrees to win. Inside the Pokémon Center, Team Rocket arrive to a storage room where Poke Balls are stored, so they plan to steal them all. The battle field changed to a Rock type. Ash sends Swellow and Tyson his Hariyama. Swellow charges to peck, but Hariyama stops Swellow and uses Seismic Toss, pushing Swellow on a rock. Swellow charges again and Hariyama uses Focus Punch once more, but this time Swellow uses Aerial Ace, evading the attack and defeating Hariyama. Tyson sends Donphan and starts with Sandstorm, hitting Swellow, so Swellow flaps its wings to get rid of the sandstorm. Donphan charges with Rollout, damaging Swellow and pushing it to the ground. Donphan charges again and again. As Donphan goes to defeat Swellow, Swellow stops it by pushing its legs against its ears. Swellow flies and drops Donphan against a rock, defeating it.

Tyson sends Metagross and starts with Psychic, engulfing Swellow. Swellow uses Quick Attack, but Metagross stops it and pushes it, using Hyper Beam to defeat Swellow. Ash sends Swellow back and spots a small scar on Metagross and realizes what he needs to do to defeat Metagross. Ash sends Grovyle, who begins by hopping on the rocks. Grovyle uses Bullet Seed on the scar. Metagross charges and uses Hyper Beam. Grovyle dodges and counter-attacks with Bullet Seed, hurting Metagross. Grovyle uses Leaf Blade, so Metagross uses Meteor Mash, defeating Grovyle in an instant. As Ash has one last Pokémon, he sends Pikachu. Pikachu uses Thunderbolt on the scar, but with little effect. Metagross uses Psychic, but Pikachu dodges and uses Iron Tail on Metagross. Pikachu gets on Metagross and uses Thunder, defeating Metagross. Tyson sends his ace, Meowth. Team Rocket's Meowth cheers for Tyson's Meowth to defeat Ash. Team Rocket, meanwhile, steals the Poké Balls and their boss kicks the door off. Seeing Team Rocket steal, the boss becomes enraged for what they did.

Tyson's Meowth starts by slashing, though Pikachu evades and uses Thunderbolt, so Meowth counters with a Thunderbolt of its own. Pikachu uses Thunder and Meowth Thunderbolt, so Brock realizes Meowth uses Thunderbolt as a protection against Pikachu's electric attacks. Pikachu uses Quick Attack, but Meowth uses Double Team, so Pikachu misses. Meowth uses Iron Tail, so Pikachu counters with an Iron Tail of his own. Pikachu charges with another Quick Attack, so Meowth goes to slash. Both Pokémon are exhausted by the battling, so Pikachu uses Thunder and Meowth Thunderbolt. Pikachu uses Iron Tail and Meowth does the same, but this time both Pokémon get hit. Both Pokémon are severely wounded, but still stand up. However, Pikachu falls down, so Tyson is the winner. Team Rocket's Meowth is proud, while Ash picks Pikachu up. Tyson thanks Ash for the battle they had. Morrison cries, as he sees that nobody cares who won or lost.

As Meowth says that the battle he saw was great while crying tears of joy, Team Rocket passes by, but stops when Meowth asks them where they're going; James replies that the question should be where Meowth has been. However, the boss is heard telling them to “get back here”, causing Jessie and James to freeze. When the boss finally appears, he stomps his foot and snaps that what happened was the last straw (which surprises even Meowth). Finally, while simultaneously cracking his knuckles, the boss adds that he gave them a good job, and that all he asks is that they punch out before they leave, but instead, they steal from him and run so he decides he will punch out for them instead before doing just that by sending Jessie, James and Meowth flying through the air. Jessie yells back to the boss that he has a lot more to worry about with the old shop than whether they punched their time clocks, while James asks to stop talking about punching, and Meowth adds “Don’t talk about clocks neither, since we just got ours cleaned” before all three say "We’re blasting off again!"

At the end of the day, Charles Goodshow gives Tyson the Hoenn League cup, and everyone cheers for him. Brock and Max are tempted to battle, and Morrison still wants to defeat Ash, while Ash still wants to train for future Leagues.

Trivia

The title of the episode is a pun on the well-known phrase “At the end of the day”.

Featured Pokémon: Mawile, Aron, Baltoy

Mistakes

Brock said that Metagross used Solar Beam; however, it actually used Hyper Beam.